Ari Stidham – Scorpion

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What makes CBS such a great fit for “Scorpion?”

A) I couldn’t imagine this show on any other network, truthfully, because our show has this link built into it. We fly a gigantic plane thirty feet off the ground and Kat McPhee was a waitress twenty minutes ago and is standing up in a Ferrari and plugging a computer into a plane. Some astounding things happen! I can’t help, but draw the comparison to Fast And Furious 6 with its amazing feats. Could it actually possible? Yes, but it would be so amazing and no one on Earth would believe it would happen. That’s our show! We do some crazy, death defying things and we’re allowed to because we are super geniuses. People watch CBS  to enjoy themselves and hang out with their favorite characters and get lost in entertainment. I watched “NCIS” with my family from age fifteen years on and it’s the only channel that I can watch literally with my whole family and we can spend an hour together. “Scorpion” is one of those shows. Our audience runs the gambit and it’s hard to get everyone to like their show, but this is a network that can get a great deal of people to watch the show. I feel like we fit in the mold where we can get everyone to like our show.

Q) There are long hours on the show. How do you balance working and all of these stunts while still taking time for yourself?

A) That’s a great question. I’m young. I’m 22 years old so I was able to move out of my parents’ house when I booked this job. So, the personal things I’m dealing with now are that I have my first real girlfriend and I have my first real apartment. I’m starting to produce side projects to keep me busy when I’m not memorizing lines. But the long hours are pretty much the majority of my life. Most of my time is spent on the set of “Scorpion,” but I just try and chalk most of my few extra circular hours with as many projects as I can so I’m not freaking out about being twenty-two years old. I’m twenty-two years old and I’m still trying to figure it all out. There is a lot of stuff going on and I try to balance it all. I do music on the side with my band DRTelevision and I am producing this new sketch show. It’s alternative comedy that is very different than anything I’ve done. I used to do a lot of improv and a lot of comedy. Really, “Scorpion” is where my time is being spent, much to the chagrin of my girlfriend and other collaborators, but it’s the best. I would take the long hours over anything because this is the best job that I have ever had. I hope it is as exciting to watch as it is to make. The long hours are hard, but it is totally worth it.

Q) What have been some of your most memorable moments from filming?

A) It’s crazy! I’ll watch an episode and it has like twenty-five locations in the episode! We shot it in eight days. I don’t know how we do it. It’s crazy! Our crew are amazing, our producers are amazing and the network we are on is amazing. I wake up and think, “What am I doing?” It all ends up on screen. With every episode an incredible thing happens. It almost always looks amazing. When we were shooting the Christmas episode I didn’t know how good it was going to be and I was floored by it! It was so good! I’m a fan of the show as well as someone in it. I am surprised by how cool our show is and everyone is working so hard on it and it is really coming together.

Q) We loved getting to see the dynamic between Meg and Sylvester in that episode. Will there be more coming from their relationship?

A) I don’t know how much I can reveal. I know that we are not saying goodbye to her out of the blue. She is definitely a favorite character of Team Scorpion. She is definitely coming back on the show. I don’t know how much I can reveal about Sylvester and Megan. It’s a television show and everyone has their own suspicions about what everyone’s emotions are and how they feel about each other. I just kind of want to play the more teasing aspect of it, which is I don’t know…I feel it is more fun that way. If they end up as just great friends that is going to be entertaining and interesting because they are two really cool characters. We have a bunch of issues, but it is nice because all I can say is that they are definitely going to help each other with the things they are going through. I believe that will be compelling to watch because it is a lot of fun to perform. Camille [Guaty] is an amazing actress and a lot of fun to work with. I want to see more Megan and Sylvester, too and she is going to be coming back.

Q) You mentioned that you are in a band and you get to work with talented singer Katherine McPhee. Any plans for an onscreen collaboration?

A) There has been a lot of talk…I’m close with the entire cast, but Katharine and I have become good friends and colleagues through work. Because she is an amazing vocalist and a good friend, I’ve really been trying to get her to do music with me. We sing on set for fun and I’m trying to get her to sing on one of my tracks. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say what her answer is yet, but she definitely didn’t spit in my face and say, “No.” Nothing has been recorded, but I have high hopes. I’m hoping we can sing on “Scorpion” as well, but I don’t know if they want to give Sylvester a singing voice. I just defer to the writers on all of that stuff because I want the show to be good. It would be a good vehicle for my voice, but I want the show to be good.

Q) What can you tease is in to come for DRTELEVISION?

A) Our episode after the AFC Championship one of my songs from DRTELEVISION will be used in the background of the episode. The song is called “WonderBread” and it is the first song that we use in the episode. I’m so excited they are using it because it is the first time it is being used on television. You will be able to hear one of my songs and it is in episode fourteen!

Q) These are real life, brilliant characters that the show is based on, but was there anything you added to your role that wasn’t originally scripted?

A) I definitely go off the scripts first and foremost. With the breakdown I got originally for Sylvester, he was originally written for a thirty-five year old African American man. I remember getting the breakdown going, “I’m not right for this, so I am just going to make myself right for this. This is how I would do it if they were looking for a thirty-five year old African American.” I showed up at the audition and there wasn’t just African American men there. There was a lot of international types and they were just looking for the guy. I remember in the breakdown that it said “This is not Rainman.” I also knew reading it that he had all the OCD in there, but I didn’t want to play Monk. I love Monk, but I didn’t want to do what Tony Shalhoub did. I wanted to do something new. So, I just tried to make him as honest as possible and as a real guy. I guess that is why I got the part. That is always my reaction to any part I audition for is just to be as authentic as possible because even if I don’t get the part that hopefully the casting director will at least remember that I’m an authentic guy or at least trying to be truthful. The research I did was really the text and I watched a lot of videos of people with OCD talking about it. For the pilot, I was going through a lot of personal anxiety and I had this weird anxiety attack. I had this epiphany that this dude is a stress ball so I was just going to use the anxiety to amp him up and have it be a part of the character. It became one of the strongest weapons in my arsenal playing Sylvester because I know how anxious someone can get about their own lives, but when however many planes are in the air and how ever many lives were at stake to internalize that anxiety really helped to amp up the energy of Sylvester in the episode. I could see my part of the team once the anxiety came  into play. So, I would say anxiety and authentic is what I brought to the character.

Q) You are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the instant fan feedback you receive?

A) It’s so great! A lot of people reach out and say, “My son has OCD” or “My son has social anxiety. Seeing Sylvester overcome his anxiety in this episode helped me understand my son better or helped my son realize he could move past his fears.” Those are the ones that resonate with me because I’m making something and touching their lives. So, that’s great for me because there aren’t other characters that have high anxiety or phobias like that and I know they are resonating with Sylvester. Also, seeing someone say, “I love the show,” a tweet like that makes me smile because I’m not making something that people don’t like. Anybody tweeting to me that I don’t know always makes me happy. It’s very cool to have so many people following me on Twitter!

Q) Is there anything else you want us to be sure to share with fans?

A) They can check out my music at http://soundcloud.com/drtelevision!